Dreda Say Mitchell MBE

Dreda Say Mitchell, born Louise Emma Joseph, grew up on a council estate in London's East End, the daughter of parents from Grenada. Visits to Whitechapel Library as a child sparked a lifelong love of stories, and she went on to study at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London Metropolitan University, and Goldsmiths, University of London, while building a career as a teacher.

Mitchell began writing her debut novel, Running Hot, a gritty East End gangland thriller, while working at Soho's Groucho Club. Published in 2004, the book won the Crime Writers' Association's John Creasey Dagger, making her the first Black British author to receive the honour. She went on to write seventeen crime novels, many co-written with her husband and writing partner Tony Mason, including the international bestselling psychological thriller Spare Room, a number one Amazon bestseller in the UK and US.

Beyond her fiction, Mitchell has built a prominent career as a broadcaster and campaigner, appearing regularly on programmes including Question Time, Newsnight, and BBC Breakfast, and presenting BBC Radio 4's Open Book. She has devoted significant time to creative writing mentorship in prisons, work that helped one of her students win three Koestler Awards, and in 2020 was appointed MBE for services to literature and educational work in prisons. In 2022, she was selected as one of twelve acclaimed female authors to contribute to Marple: Twelve New Stories, reimagining Agatha Christie's Miss Marple.